Hennessey Venom bumps Bugatti Veyron as fastest production car

Originally published: April 3, 2013

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My guess is that once you cross the 400 km/hr barrier in a car, it no longer matters whether you’re driving the fastest production car in the world. What would seem more crucial is whether the special tires of that production model keep themselves from obliterating themselves, which in the case of the Bugatti Veyron is why the supercar is limited to 258 mph.

And while Bugatti says its Veyron can indeed reach 267.8 mph, the company owned by Volkswagen now has to contend with an upstart named Hennessey claiming its Venom GT did, in fact, reach 265.7 mph. That would put the Venom just past the limited speed of the Veyron and, therefore, technically speaking, make the Venom the new title holder of the fastest production car in the world, even though this Venom GT is only on the seventh car to roll off the shop floor.

Still, that much speed from such a little car required an astonishing 1,244 horsepower and 1,155 pound-feet of torque from a 7.0 twin-turbo V8.